How to Use the Digital Waste Tracking Service (Report Receipt of Waste)

The digital waste tracking service, officially called Report receipt of waste, is how permitted waste sites tell Defra about every load they receive. It's built around three things: an account for your organisation, an API code if you want to submit automatically through your own software, and a reporting deadline of 2 working days from receipt.

Before you can report anything, you need the account set up and your sites added to it. From there you choose how you submit: through the Receipt of Waste API, which is the primary route, or using Defra's spreadsheet, which is a temporary option expected to remain available until at least October 2027.

If you want loads reported automatically rather than typed into a spreadsheet, you'll need an API code from your Defra account. You give this code to your software provider, who uses it to connect your waste tracking software to the Receipt of Waste API on your behalf.

This is the route we build into every bespoke app: once your API code is connected, load records are submitted as part of the normal job workflow, with no separate data entry step for your team.

API submission means each load received at your site is sent to Defra automatically through your software, as soon as the job is confirmed. This is the method Defra expects most permitted sites to move towards, and it removes the manual step of re-typing information that's already been captured elsewhere.

Every submission still needs an accurate EWC code, weight and source and destination detail, which is where good waste tracking software earns its keep by validating that data before it's sent.

If the digital waste tracking service is down when you need to report, the outage rule applies: make a written record within 2 working days, then transfer it to the service within 7 working days of the outage being resolved. Keep a simple fallback log for exactly this situation.